When Jesus declared, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," he evidently used the word "free" in its broadest sense. The term "free" precludes the possibility of bondage in any degree, or of limitation in any direction,—mental, moral, or physical. Indeed, these three kinds of freedom are so closely associated as to be inseparable, each being more or less dependent upon the remaining two. There can be no complete freedom from any one of them until emancipation from the other two is also obtained. Christ Jesus classed error in its final analysis under one head,—that is, sin. A sick man, when told by him that his sins were forgiven, was instantly healed of his physical distress; and we certainly know that the carnal mind, not matter, was the sinner. Here was a concrete example of the Master's teaching that sin and sickness are one in nature, since both are a denial of God, good. The first step toward freedom is the recognition that one is bound. Had the sick man, to whom reference has been made, held that it was right and proper to be in this hapless condition, he would not have reached out for something better. It was only as he recognized his sense of limitation that he sought release, and put himself in a position to obtain that release.

Most of the conditions of human bondage are obvious enough. There are three, however, to which attention may be directed, on account of the subtlety behind which they seek to hide. They are of such long standing as to seem almost respectable! Few, indeed, realize the bands of steel, as it were, which these conditions have clamped around us.

The first is custom. Under this head may be gathered styles of dress, of speech, of manners, and of amusements. There are many beautiful and harmless styles of dress; there is much clean, simple speech, not lacking in mirth or wit; there are gentle, courteous manners devoid of affectation; and numberless wholesome amusements both out of doors and within. What but the apparently iron hand of custom, which lends an air of respectability to the perversion of these good things, tempts us to sanction or even tolerate the perversions of them?

The bondage of public opinion is, perhaps, quite as strong—certainly quite as harmful—as that of custom. What "they" say and what "everybody" thinks have been as monsters in the path of progress that oftentimes none but the strongest have been able, or even have tried, to overcome. At one time "everybody" thought that the earth was flat. What was the dire penalty to those who dared to differ from this opinion? How many homes have been wrecked, how many hearts broken, because of what "they" said!

A third condition, probably the most relentless of all, is the bondage to one's own human beliefs. What others do, say, or think need not necessarily bind us. What we ourselves believe often does. What others do, say, or think need not cause us to suffer. From the distress emanating from our own false beliefs nothing can relieve us save the destruction of the beliefs. In the latter part of the nineteenth century and thus far in the twentieth the so-called human mind has apparently shown a greater disposition to break away from ancient, illusory beliefs than at any previous time; nevertheless, the chains are not yet universally broken, and many are peacefully slumbering under the coverlet, My father thought (said or believed) so, and so, and so.

It is self-evident that freedom from these and all other conditions of bondage can come in but one way,—through the right thinking of the individual. Wrong thinking, with its resultant wrong action, can be corrected in no other way. Mental freedom, therefore, is the first point of liberation upon which moral and physical freedom depends. And is not mental freedom the breaking asunder of every bond of limitation which time, place, condition, or circumstance may have imposed upon men, leaving the thought-processes to be guided entirely by the individual revelations of Truth? Human thought must be untrammeled,—first, in order to perceive the truth, next, in order to put it into practice.

Obedience to the revealed truth is of itself moral freedom. This does not, of course, imply that we may do right or wrong as we choose, since wrongdoing is bondage to sin that instantly destroys our cherished liberty. Only by bringing human thinking under the guidance of divine wisdom, by which our desires are molded, our affections controlled, our ideals exalted, can we attain to that moral freedom which a knowledge of the truth bestows. Then follows the liberation of the so-called activities and functions of the material body, as naturally as water flows down the hillside when released by the sun from its wintry crystallization; and lo! physical freedom is achieved.

Divine Love is the sun that melts all obstructions which would claim to intervene between mankind and the primal state of harmony. Even a faint perception of this Love, which is God, good, reveals rarer beauty in the forest-robed hillslopes, clearer green in the carpeted meadows, a finer note in the thrilling song that bursts from the warbler's throat, while it gladdens the entire scale of one's living, ennobles his thought, rewards his affections, and constantly enriches his nature. Christian Science emphasizes the teaching of Jesus and his apostles in this direction as no other religious instruction ever has done. Its basic teaching, which is the allness of God, who is Life, Truth, and Love, precludes reliance upon or belief in any other supposed power. To know the truth that makes free is to know God, or, as Mrs. Eddy states it in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 107), "Immanuel, 'God with us,'—the sovereign ever-presence, delivering the children of men from every ill 'that flesh is heir to.'"